Jeffcoat ready for next challenge

Lacey Jeffcoat (3) looks to the basket as Mountain Brook takes on Vestavia Hills on Jan. 5 at Mountain Brook High School. Jeffcoat played volleyball for three years and basketball all four years at MBHS.

“I want to be in the different color jersey, starting day one,” the soon-to-be Troy University volleyball player said.

Jeffcoat signed with the Trojans in November. Just a few months from now, she hopes to secure the role as Troy’s starting libero.

“I think I can go in and make an impact,” she said.

The Mountain Brook High School senior lacks neither ambition nor pedigree to back up a belief in her abilities.

She played for the Spartans during her freshman, sophomore and junior years. Each of those three seasons, Mountain Brook won the Class 7A state championship. Jeffcoat starred as the Spartans libero the latter two years and set a school record with 858 digs as a junior.

“It was definitely something special, and I would not take it back for anything,” Jeffcoat said. “It was three of the best years of my life to date. I still love all of my teammates. It was so special and always will be.”

Her coach for those three years, Haven O’Quinn, said Jeffcoat’s success on the court comes primarily from the work ethic she established long before the games began.

“Some of Lacey’s best volleyball days came in Spartan Arena when there was no opponent,” O’Quinn said. “She’s really special in that regard, in the fact that every time she gets the opportunity to play and contact the ball, she wants to get better.”

It was not always a foregone conclusion that Jeffcoat would pursue volleyball beyond her high school years. Basketball was her first love, and she didn’t start playing volleyball until she was in seventh grade.

“I started playing volleyball two weeks before tryouts in seventh grade,” she said. “My friends were playing, so I was like ‘What the heck, let me just try out.’”

During her middle school years, she played on the front row, primarily as a hitter. When the time came for high school tryouts prior to her freshman year, she was just hopeful to earn a spot on the junior varsity squad.

But she didn’t make the JV team. Instead, she was soon inserted into O’Quinn’s varsity starting lineup as a defensive specialist.

“She was raw, but she had such a competitive drive to her,” O’Quinn recalled. “She had work to do, but the instinct for the ball, she had that.”

Mountain Brook’s tournament in Orlando early that season cemented her role in the lineup. Jeffcoat was competing with a teammate for a starting role on the back row, and O’Quinn vividly remembers a conversation with the then-freshman. There were frustrated tears wrought on by a hatred of not excelling. O’Quinn could work with that.

“She wanted it so bad,” O’Quinn said. “Next thing you know, she ends up with a starting role, as a freshman, starting in the state championship.”

The following season – Jeffcoat’s sophomore season – she locked down the libero job for good and immediately became one of the best in the state. Any ball that she could get to was hers. As O’Quinn told her, “Don’t feel like you can’t be a ball hog.”

For Jeffcoat, three traits helped her reachthat elite level.

“My goal is to be the hardest worker in the gym,” she said, “and the loudest, and the most encouraging.”

She still uses those three traits, not just on the volleyball court, but while playing basketball as well. Even though her athletic future rests in volleyball, she has played on the varsity basketball team since her freshman year as well.

First-year coach John London added another one to the list.

“The first thing that comes to mind with her is the leadership qualities that she has,” he said. “It’s kind of a coach’s dream. …When you have players like Lacey, it makes your job easier.”

For years, Jeffcoat assumed basketball would be the sport that would carry her. Her memory bank doesn’t reach back far enough to remember life before the hardwood.

“I definitely love basketball,” she said. “Basketball was definitely my sport. I was good at basketball.”

No one would argue that point. She serves as the Lady Spartans’ point guard and is a big reason why the team got off to such a good start in London’s initial campaign at the helm.

The Lady Spartans have adopted an up-tempo style of play this season, and it’s Jeffcoat’s job to control the pace of the game. The team boasts a balanced scoring attack, with at least five players capable of leading the scoring charge every night.

“I have to make my teammates look best and that’s what I try to do,” Jeffcoat said. “If no one’s scoring, I’ve got to step up and score. But if people are hot, I’ve got to feed them the ball. People have been hot on our team, so I’ve got to feed them.”

Her competitive basketball days are almost over, but her days as a leader on the court are hopefully far from it. “I was put on Earth to play volleyball,” Jeffcoat said.